Danielsaurus

Letters to the Children of Troy

As Jack Cheng tells the story:

In 1971, Marguerite Hart, the children’s librarian of my hometown of Troy, Michigan, wrote to dozens of politicians, writers, artists and otherwise notable individuals asking them to send in a few inspirational words for the children of Troy on the opening of its first public library. […] I remember going there to binge on Matt Christopher books in elementary school, and to research class reports and use the computers later on.

In response to Hart’s request, 97 letters were eventually returned – from individuals as wide-ranging as Isaac Asimov and Pat Nixon to Neil Armstrong and Dr. Seuss. Considered in sum, the letters speak to the the untold social value of libraries and the transcendental wonders of books. E.B. White, in his letter to the children of Troy, wrote that books were people – “people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book”:

Dr. Seuss also wrote, pressing the children with an important task:

While many of the letters were addressed to the children themselves, like Isaac Asimov’s and Dr. Ben Spock’s, others were addressed to Ms. Hart herself – or speak of how “a world without books would be a world without light” and of the important role libraries play in storing the knowledge of the world.

As poignant as some of the letters are, though, what has captivated me most is the legacy of a truly great children’s librarian shining through it all. Ms. Marguerite Hart must have been a real local treasure to the city of Troy, and it’s her vision for what libraries can become that seems to be her greatest legacy. As Troy’s library recounts, she once said:

The public library has a choice of roles to play in a community. It may be a vital, telling force, a source to which its patrons turn first, or it may be a passive entity, doing its work as a background for community activity. I believe that like the City of Troy, to which it belongs and which it represents, our new library must take a prominent place. Before children are able to read independently, a librarian helps them to know the library as the place they may explore when they do read. She helps them discover reading as a pleasurable experience, the quality of which derives from the attitudes within the library and that of the community it serves.

Encouraging Children’s Reading Habits

What does it take to get kids to read?

Publishing expert Michael Norris, editor of the Book Publishing Report, is now releasing the findings from a full year’s worth of surveys he conducted about the children’s publishing industry – and the answer his research led him to regarding that question might come as a surprise to many.

The Guardian shares more about Norris’s conclusions:

[D]espite the best intentions, it is well-meaning mothers and fathers who often stop their sons and daughters from picking up the reading habit. “Parents have too much of a role in deciding which books their child is going to read,” said Norris. “It is turning children off. They should let them choose.”

Norris’s research found that it is parental attitudes and pressure – not the allure of technology – that keeps children from reading more. (Whoops. There goes that scapegoat.) He also found, unsurprisingly, that children buy and read books only based on personal suitability and taste. As he summarizes, in a line which good librarians and booksellers are sure to enjoy:

“It should all be about patience and believing that books are sold to one person, one at a time,” said Norris.

It’s an interesting overview of children’s reading habits and the children’s book industry as a whole, from a well-placed, authoritative perspective. Norris also later shares some truly useful tips within the article about how to encourage children’s love of reading – to which I can only add, for reference, Daniel Pennac’s The Rules of the Reader. It’s all well worth a look.

UPDATE: Publisher Kate Wilson kindly points out in a comment on the piece that, while of course children’s own reading independence is an admirable and desirable pursuit, there is also a real joy in the shared act of parents and children reading together. It’s a fair point – and I think it’s worth saying that, naturally, one form of reading doesn’t have to necessarily come at the expense of the other. All of this also goes to show, though, that parents who themselves enjoy reading – and create a pleasurable culture around reading, whether it is as an individual or shared activity – will likely also have kids who enjoy reading. It really is a cultural thing.

Jason Kottke: On The Extinction of Paper Children’s Books

Sure, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ on iPad was a neat example of the possibility of the new form for storytelling – if still more slanted toward the adult reader and fashioned as something of a novelty experience. But does that mean printed children’s books will go away anytime soon? (And this really is a ridiculous proposition; no, they won’t. But hypothetically, we’ll honor the question.)

Quite simply and obviously, no. As Jason Kottke says:

I’d like to assure the childless [blogger and Digg-cofounder Kevin] Rose that if paper books ever go extinct (they won’t), paper children’s books will be the last to go, particularly among the pre-K crowd. E-books are “broken” in several ways that are important to kids, not the least of which is that paper books are super useful as floors in really tall block buildings.

‘The More Things Change…’

Children’s publisher Stephen Roxburgh recounts the experience of test-driving a new iPad with his five-year-old daughter:

For those who can’t imagine sitting down with a child in their lap reading on a screen, listen to this. The last book we looked at was Winnie-the-Pooh, which ports beautifully over to the iPad screen. In the horizontal mode the book is laid out in spreads and the full-color Sheppard illustrations are as gorgeous as ever. I read Belle a few pages and then asked her what she wanted to do next. She said, simply, “Read.”

The iPad Meets the Children’s Book

A great, comprehensive look from industry trade journal Publishers Weekly at just what’s going on in the children’s publishing world to get stories onto the iPad. Well worth reading, even if you don’t have an iPad. You can almost see how the industry is looking ahead to their future, and what it might mean for our children’s everyday reading experiences.

How the iPhone Is Helping Dyslexic Readers

Writing in the Guardian, Howard Hill gives one powerful testimonial in support of the iPhone – sharing how much easier the phone has made reading books for him, as someone with dyslexia. Where text once appeared in a jumbled disarray, and books presented a monumental struggle – with Hill often losing his place or quitting out of fear – something about reading on the iPhone made it easier, both for him and many others, he notes.

The first title I selected was The Count of Monte Cristo. I raced through this on my iPhone in just over a week, my wife asking why I was continually playing with my iPhone. When I’d finished I enjoyed the story so much that I went to buy a copy for a friend. In the bookshop I was amazed. It was more than 1,000 pages! Had I been presented with the book in this form I would never have read it. It would have been too much like climbing a mountain.

So why I had found it easier to read from my iPhone? First, an ordinary page of text is split into about four pages. The spacing seems generous and because of this I don’t get lost on the page. Second, the handset’s brightness makes it easier to take in words. “Many dyslexics have problems with ‘crowding’, where they’re distracted by the words surrounding the word they’re trying to read,” says John Stein, Professor of Neuroscience at Oxford University and chair of the Dyslexia Research Trust. “When reading text on a small phone, you’re reducing the crowding effect.”

Indeed, it makes quite a bit of sense: having an extra degree of control over presentation – which ebooks and readers like the iPad and iPhone can provide – can make all the difference to those with reading difficulties, allowing them to separate the text from the (often dauntingly difficult) page layout and control how they take in what they’re reading. I wouldn’t be surprised to see future research studies confirm these anecdotal stories soon.

Alice Stumbles onto the iPad

An early yet promising look at the potential experience the iPad can offer children’s stories.